The Impact of Communication Quality, Partner Complementarity and Foreign Partner’s Cultural Sensitivity on Inter-partner Trust in ISAs

Abstract

There has been an impressive growth in international strategic alliances (ISAs) numbers over the last decades since the formation of ISAs is considered one of the most important entry modes for firms to succeed in their internationalization efforts and to achieve optimal growth and competitiveness on a global basis. The role of trust on alliances’ successful operation and performance has been highlighted in existing international business literature. In this paper, three propositions are developed in order to investigate the impact of (a) communication quality, (b) partner complementarity and (c) foreign partner’s cultural sensitivity on the level of trust the foreign partner has towards the local ISA partner. The objective of this research is the attainment of an in-depth comprehension of the above factors. Furthermore, it provides the ground for future research to examine the importance of trust on ISAs in the South-East (SE) Europe region.